He mentioned Mr Lupton among others,--and had
been assured that though the swindle was undoubted, the money had
better be paid. It was thought to be impossible to connect the men
who had made the bets with the perpetrators of the fraud;--and if
Lord Silverbridge were to abstain from paying his bets because his
own partner had ruined the animal which belonged to them jointly,
the feeling would be against him rather than in his favour. In
fact the Jockey Club could not sustain him in such refusal.
Therefore the money would be paid. Mr Moreton, with some
expression of doubt, trusted that he might be thought to have
exercised a wise discretion. Then he went on to express his own
opinion in regard to the lasting effect which the matter would
have upon the young man. 'I think,' said he, 'that his Lordship is
heartily sickened of racing, and that he will never return to it.'
The Duke of course was very wretched when these tidings first
reached him. Though he was a rich man, and of all men the least
careful of his riches, still he felt that seventy thousand pounds
was a large sum of money to throw away amongst a nest of
swindlers.
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